smithsonian_list_terms
Enumerate the valid term vocabulary for an indexed filter field (unitcode, culture, place, date, onlinemediatype, topic). Call before filtering to avoid empty results from invalid values; pass contains to resolve a guessed value to its exact term(s). unitcode terms come back with their museum names.
How to use it
Project documentation lists smithsonian_list_terms for the Smithsonian MCP Server MCP server. Add the server to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and others), then check which tools your installed version makes available. Tool availability can depend on configuration and credentials. A server handshake does not verify this tool’s behavior. See the full listing for setup details.
Install Smithsonian MCP Server
docker run --rm -e SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY=your-api-key -p 3010:3010 smithsonian-mcp-serverOther tools in Smithsonian MCP Server (5)
Browse objects within one exact category (museum, culture, period, medium, topic) with total count, a page of objects, and museum breakdown. Requires an exact indexed category term.
Discover cross-collection objects related to an anchor, matched on shared culture, named-party, topic, and period signals.
Return all CC0-licensed images for an object at multiple resolutions (thumbnail, screen, high-res JPEG/TIFF). Only CC0 images returned, never an empty list — a distinct error reason names why, whether the object has nothing digitized, only non-image media, or only restricted images.
Fetch a normalized catalog metadata projection for an object by ID: title, dates, materials, dimensions, exhibition history, credit line, and identifiers.
Search across 14.5M objects by text query with optional filters (museum, type, date term, culture, place, topic, name, online-only, CC0). Returns curated summaries with total count.